Vegetarian going back to eating meat for ease of family mealtimes - how?!

[LaTristesse]

I've been veggie for 17 years. Was never a big meat fan, but it's become more a moral thing over the years. I now have 2 small children and a meat monster of a DH. Meal times are driving me mad as I usually have to cook 3 different things - the children aren't veggie but I don't like them to have the junk DH eats. I really want to get us to the point where we all sit round the table and eat the same meal all together, and am thinking this would be so much easier if I ate meat. But I have NO idea where to start - what do I need to know about cooking meat, in terms of what's safe, right etc? I know you can't reheat some meats, right? That kind of thing...

Also, if anyone has gone back to eating meet after a long period, what can I expect from my body? Will it hack it?!

I can't imagine anything worse!!

Why can't the children just eat what you are eating?

I was thinking what I see Chipping has just posted! Does your DH ever cook for himself, if he eats stuff you don't want to have or want your children to have?

In a really similar situation to you LaTristress and could haver posted the same thing a few weeks ago but I thought "You know what, I do the cooking and shopping, you lot can jolly well eat what I want". We probably eat meals 2 oe 3 times a week where I eat the Quorn/tvp equivalent of what my meat monster DH and DS are having, Spag Bol, chicken breasts, stir fry chicken/quorn and veg etc.

Before meeting DH I didn't eat meat for years, was healthy and slim! DH is a committed carnivore and it gradually got easier to return to eating meat.

Fast forward a few years and DD is at a vegetarian nursery and eats a wide range of foods and flavours. A fortnight ago I stopped eating meat again. Feel much better for it and its cheaper. What i do now is cook up a vege meal, add cheese or meat for DH and DD can choose what protein source she wants. It minimises the amount of time spent cooking. I also bulk cook and freeze a lot so even if i have to cook up a meat casserole one night i know my meal will only need reheating.

oh goodness, why are you making 3 meals??
in our house I make a meal. if DP doesn't want it he can bloody well cook himself something else!

DP isn't veggie but I am and as such he has pretty much had veggie/vegan food for his evening meal for the last 7.5 years.
He can eat all the meat he wants for his lunch.
that said, I have now and then cooked meat for him, but I certainly don't do it regularly... if he wants more he is welcome to do it for himself :)

I would do what a PP says and cook something that you can eat and then add meat to it if DH/the kids want it.

I tried to go back to meat once and it made me feel really very ill. Likewise, ds2 recently decided he liked meat so I let him have it for a few days and he had the most awful tummy troubles

Is there any reason why the children aren't eating what you are eating? We are a veggie family with one non-veggie DC who has food allergies which make a veggie diet quite restrictive and probably not nutritious. I usually get cooked meats, chicken, ham etc and use them as a substitute. For example today, we had veggie sausages, rice and salad and non-veggie DC had some sliced chicken instead of sausages. I also often give him his meat protein at lunchtime when it is really no hassle to make several different sorts of sandwiches.

When you say you don't want the DCs eating the rubbish your DH eats, is that because he eats meat or because he eats junk? I don't think it should be up to you to ear something you don't wish to consume. Maybe you could alternate things, meat based dishes for DC & DC some evenings with you having what you want, and vegetarian some evenings.

I wouldn't do 3 different meals, 2 tops if I want something I know the rest don't like.

My family all understand that I cook what I cook and they can choose to eat, or not eat.

I stopped being vegetarian when I was pregnant (and anaemic) with DD.
I immediately felt better and had much more energy. My body didn't seem to suffer any ill effects.
I now buy welfare meat whenever I can. Since it's just me and DD living together, we don't tend to spend that much money on food. DH is a total carnivore and DD has the propensity to eat meat/fish/seafood and ingore the carbs I give her.

Interesting isn't it (sorry tangent alert) that some stop eating meat and feel better and others start eating meat and feel better. maybe I should consider everything in moderation!

My DH was veggie when I met him. For lots of years I cooked for |(meat eating) me and my DDs as well as my DHs veggie diet. I rarely cooked completely separate things.

I'd make a veggie tomato sauce and serve up his, then add the mince that I'd dry fried into the sauce to the rest of the sauce for the rest of us. Same deal if making lasagne.
I'd fry up lots of peppers and onions and put out the makings for fajitas, then add cooked chicken to the meat eaters ones.
A lot of things I just cooked really traditionally and he helped himself to whatever he fancied of it. His favourite was a roast dinner without the meat.

He gave up being veggie as he missed a few things that he couldn't have and it was much easier eating out if he ate meat. Now he eats things that I wouldn't touch like black pudding and haggis.

I went back to meat after 5 years in a BIG way. I'm not kidding - bacon sandwich and sausage the first day, steak and kidney pie and cornish pasty the second . I know, I know, but I LOVE meat - did bloody well to be veggie for 5 years!

Anyway, my point is that my system basically went 'WTF???' and I ended up with IBS which I have to this day. Do it slowly!

I was veggie from the age of 9. I just didn't like meat really.

When I was 23 I decided that it was becoming more and more difficult for me to cook for us as a family. So I started trying chicken. It made me feel terribly ill, upset stomach, cramps etc. It did for the next 6 times I tried it over about a year. But then I got used to it. I still only eat chicken, with the odd bit of bacon. I can't manage to try anything else. Nothing else takes my fancy really. I do actually enjoy the chicken though.

4 years later and I do regularly eat chicken, and cook with it instead of quorn pieces etc. I still use vege mince, vege sausages, vege burgers etc though. DP and DS have meat sausage and burgers, but only if DP cooks them. Works fine for us. It works well for us. We all get a bit of what we like.

If we go anywhere I still say I am veggie though, as I don't want any other meat to be given to me and it is easier than explaining all of the above! For example, I was in hospital at the weekend, and asked for vegetarian food. Otherwise I'd of probably ended up with the beef curry, or meat pie which I would never ever ever in a million years eat.

I'm quite a fussy thing to be honest!